Joseph Adkins (February 5, 1815 – May 10, 1869) was a minister and state senator in Georgia during the Reconstruction Era after the American Civil War. He was a Republican who represented Warren County, Georgia. He supported civil rights for African Americans and reported racially motivated violence by the Ku Klux Klan. He was murdered in May 1869, after having led a delegation to Washington, D.C. to obtain military protection against widespread acts of violence by the Klan.